Alyssa Burd
Online Editor
In mid-March, senior biochemistry majors Emily Reale, Sarah Zwart and Anna Love had the opportunity to attend the American Chemical Society National Meeting and Exposition in San Diego, California.
With help from their advisors and a few grants from SGA, the students were able to spend three days in San Diego surrounded by experts and researchers in their field of study.
Seniors Sarah Zwart (left) and Anna Love (right); photo courtesy of Love
The meeting and exposition also featured an undergraduate poster session that allowed for attendees to share their own research they conducted at their institutions. Zwart and Love both shared the research they collected over the past year while working under Dr. Alison Noble in Messiah’s chemistry department.
According to Love, “It’s always really fun to be able to have the experience of talking about your research to other people in the field and people outside of the field because it’s good to be able to explain your research to people who aren’t in that particular area of chemistry, and also be able to explain it to experts in the area and get feedback from them.”
“It’s more of an encouraging experience than anything,” added Zwart. “People are there to really encourage and give constructive criticism.”
Zwart and Love also attended several of the meeting’s chemistry and biology talks.
“In the time when we weren’t presenting our research, we had the opportunity to go and listen to these talks from preeminent people in the field and hear what is really new and hear about the very current research that is being done,” said Love. “It was a really good experience.”
The students also say that the city of San Diego made the trip memorable in itself. During their downtime, Zwart and Love explored the city and were able to make trips to the beach and a tourist seaport village.
To learn how you can obtain a grant through SGA and attend a conference in your field of study, visit the Career and Professional Development Center for more information.
Alyssa Burd, Online Editor
Alyssa is a sophomore journalism major who hails from the beautiful land of Hess 1st.